THE CHINESE ROOM (1967) REVIEWED BY CHRIS CAMPBELL

I would say that Albert Zugsmith's The Chinese Room (1967) is the ultimate cult film.

I love crazy films that take a WTF approach in their execution, such as Blood Delirium (Bergonzelli), In the Folds of the Flesh ( Bergonzelli) and Top Sensation AKA The Seducers, to name only a few. The Chinese Room, from Mexico, pre-dates and I think even outdoes the previously mentioned schizo classics.

It plays like a Mexican soap opera having a bad fever while suffering a severe head injury.

It starts out with the maid Consuelo being rescued from a suicide attempt, hanging from a tree in the garden. The suicide attempt brought on by being in love with her employer, the rich and handsome bank owner Nicolas Vidal. It seems Consuelo had been receiving letters and, as the examining Dr. Saluby points out, letters that she possibly even wrote to herself. "It's quite possible" he explains to the wealthy couple. He challenges Mr. Vidal to try it out on himself. He accepts, promising to write hundreds of threatening letters to himself in an "experiment of self hypnosis". 

As Nicolas excuses himself to check on Consuelo, Dr. Saluby quickly assesses that Mrs. Vidal ( played by gorgeous and voluptuous Elizabeth Campbell)

is trapped in a loveless marriage and prescribes heavy doses of affection via regular injections of the good doctor's own throbbing gristle.

Nicholas, in the meantime, has his own set of problems. He also starts receiving threatening letters as well since he's been carrying on a secret affair with his secretary who has a bizarre, hidden deformity. We find out later that he has been having the affair for 2 f-in' years and just now notices that she basically has a flesh hoof for one of her feet!

Then we have eccentric Juan Cervantes, a longtime employee of Nicolas who introduces him to his "Chinese room". Cervantes, dressed in full Fu Manchu-type attire and quoting Confucius point out the evils of money. You have to ask yourself - how the hell could you construct such an elaborate and quite fancy room (giant gold Buddha statue!), without a shitload of that same evil money? Anyway, who cares. He encourages Nicolas' further visits to his Chinese room.

From there things get stranger. There are the most righteously groovy/gory dream sequences, Consuelo's eventual murder as she's found hanging from the same goddamned tree, and a mysteriously appearing and re-appearing deer hoof!

Then it's a race against time as Nicolas has to find Consuelo's murderer or he himself will go to prison, being the #1 suspect. With the clock ticking to prove his innocence, he proceeds to eat a bunch of psychedelic mushrooms, gets behind the wheel, trips out, wrecks his car and crashes Dr. Saluby's jumpin' house boat party.

Mrs. Vidal has a total psychotic breakdown that reminded me a lot of Rita Calderoni's multiple breakdowns in R. Polselli's Delirium, made years later. I may be wrong here but I noticed similarities in style, plot and acting w/ Delirium. Definitely not a blue print but I would not be surprised if Polselli had seen The Chinese Room prior to directing Delirium.

With that said, I strongly suggest that you seek this sucker out and partake in all of it's freaked out glory and screw all cult film pretenders. This is the real thing!

BUY A SUBTITLED COPY NOW!

Apathy

Due to apathy on your and my part, no new posts for now.

HI-TECH TERROR #5

Some ideas sound good in the planning stages, but once they see the light of day, they turn out not so good. That's what happened with HTT 5. I thought, why not review a bunch of films with the word SISTER in the title. What a dumb ass idea. Just because they all shared one word in the title, I thought that would be enough to make an entertaining read. I finally decided that "all me all of the time" wasn't working, so with the next issue, I brought in outside writers. By doing this, I ended up not only making HTT better, but I gained the friendship of a bunch of amazing people.

HI-TECH TERROR #4

With the fourth issue of HTT, I expanded temporarily to 6 (really 5 and a half) pages and so included mainly reviews as satellite news was dropped due to apathy. Except for Harry Kumel's DAUGHTER OF DARKNESS, I pretty much hated all the other films I reviewed that issue. The fact that those reviled were all American films, was certainly a reflection of my state of mind at the time (and currently as well!).

HI-TECH TERROR #3

This issue of HI-TECH TERROR leads off with paranoia in Hollywood about the VCR. They had designed an anti-copying signal that was supposed to save them from ruination. Talk about an industry full of "chicken littles"! Of course the VCR ended up saving their sorry asses. Technology is a two way street of course. You create something to defeat copying, and someone else will create a little black box that will defeat the anti-copying signal. In a preview of the future direction this zine would take, I review ZOMBIE LAKE. I hated it, and I still do! Enjoy HTT #3!

HI-TECH TERROR #2

With the second issue of HTT I decided to add some graphics to try and make it halfway presentable. Kind of like putting lipstick on a pig. One of the stupidest things I did was to split the text with a picture on the first page. hard as Hell to read! Funny reading about VHS vs Beta, A lot of VHS releases news, along with satellite TV and other ephemera. Wrapped up with a review of fellow Texan SF Brownrigg's KEEP MY GRAVE OPEN.

HI-TECH TERROR #1

Years before I started the newsletter/magazine EUROPEAN TRASH CINEMA, I published a very cheesy newsletter called HI-TECH TERROR. At the time, it was the first newsletter devoted to trashy films on video only. Before that time, film review newsletters were devoted to theatrical releases only. I published 43 issues before it mutated into ETC. If there's interest, I will republish all of them on the blog. Many of fandom's best writers contributed reviews, so it's not just me rambling on. You will see near the end where my interest in US crap wanes and the European influence takes over. Ok, below is the very first one. To view a larger image, just right click on it, open link in new tab and you can then make it larger and easier to read.

COLD EYES OF FEAR by Dennis Capicik

COLD EYES OF FEAR
a.k.a. Gli Occhi Fredda della Paura

Italy/Spain, 1971.

D: Enzo G. Castellari
P: Mario Mariano & José Frade for Cinemar-Atlantida Films//St & Sc: Leo Anchóriz, Tito Carpi & Enzo G. Castellari//DP: Antonio L. Ballesteros//E: Vincenzo Tomassi//M: Ennio Morricone.
Cast: Giovanna Ralli, Frank Wolff, Fernando Rey, Julián Mateos, Karin Schubert, Gianni Garko, Leonardo Scavino, Franco Marletta.

Produced at the height of the giallo craze, Enzo G. Castellari (director Enio Girolami hiding behind his usual pseudonym) was commissioned by Spanish producer José Frade to helm this offbeat effort, which, despite its intriguing title and rather great cast, is pretty far removed from the usual conventions of the genre.  

Beginning promisingly, a beautiful half-naked woman (Karin Schubert) is stalked by a man with a switchblade, but this all-too-familiar opening actually turns out to be part of a stage show at ‘The Carousel’, a trendy nightspot whose feature attraction happens to be “Ooh La La!”  Outside of this Jess Franco-styled deceptive opening, the film quickly moves into reality as Peter (spaghetti western stalwart Gianni Garko), a rather naïve lawyer, successfully picks-up Anna (Giovanna Ralli), and after some incidental travelogue footage of London’s nightlife, takes her back to his uncle’s (Fernando Rey) house, who also happens to be a prominent judge.  Upon their arrival, they encounter Quill (Julián Mateos), a mysterious stranger, who has already killed the butler, and then, a ‘bobby’ appears at the front door, but much to the astonishment of Peter and Anna, this ‘saviour’ turns out to be Arthur Welt (Frank Wolff), who is working in tandem with Quill.  Through the course of this rather slow-moving film, it’s revealed that Welt is searching for some elusive documents, which would prove his “wrongful conviction” some fifteen years earlier and thus clear his name.

Quite obviously inspired by William Wyler’s DESPERATE HOURS (1955), with Humphrey Bogart – hence the film’s original English-language export title DESPERATE MOMENTS – Castellari’s film does manage to sustain some general interest thanks to the likable cast, who, through the progression of the film reveal their insecurities and vulnerabilities as Welt’s plan slowly withers away.  Welt is frustrated at (quote) “getting the shaft,” and the prospect of spending still more time in jail.  Welt’s partner Quill also quickly unravels once he realizes that, after getting lured into a potential robbery and only finding a lousy 50-quid in the house safe, he was actually duped by Welt to further HIS agenda.  In fact, the entire cast revels in desperation (as in Wyler’s film) during their rather intense standoff as Peter also realizes that the world isn’t quite as ‘black-and-white’ as he may have thought; even Anna has no qualms about getting into the thick of it as she tries to turn Quill against Welt, and then, in a risky tactic proceeds to question his mettle when it doesn’t work out.  A few years later, Giovanna Ralli would go on to portray the District Attorney in Massimo Dallamano’s superb WHAT HAVE THEY DONE TO YOUR DAUGHTERS? (1974), whose character therein was, yet again, another assertive and very confident woman who could hold her own in the usually male-dominated polizieschi.

The usually reliable Castellari doesn’t necessarily disappoint, but giallo thrillers were definitely not his strong point as opposed to westerns or its similar urban brethren, the polizieschi.  Known for his rather hard-hitting spaghetti westerns like GO KILL THEM ALL AND COME BACK ALONE (1968) or polizieschi such as The BIG RACKET (1977), here Castellari doesn’t really dwell on slow-motion action scenes, which dominated much of his later work, but he still experiments with all sorts of stylish flourishes like experimental camera angles, staccato cutting, shot reversals and all sorts of weird montages like some low-rent Antonioni.  Prolific composer Ennio Morricone also contributes a strange, almost experimental score, which definitely adds a layer of ‘psychedelia’ perfectly encapsulating the distorted states of the primary characters.  Although, during Peter and Anna’s London excursion, Morricone provides a customary lounge track, so prevalent in most gialli of the time, which is yet another gem in the composer’s long and varied career.

Pretty much available since the dawn of the DVD, COLD EYES OF FEAR has been in print through most of Redemption’s partnerships with Image Entertainment, RYKO and Kino, who have also issued it on Blu-ray.  It’s a beautiful transfer and worth checking out, but those expecting an honest-to-goodness giallo, will undoubtedly be disappointed.

WHO KILLED THE PROSECUTOR AND WHY?

TERZA IPOTESI SU UN CASO DI PERFETTA STRATEGIA CRIMINALE

WHO KILLED THE PROSECUTOR AND WHY?

Director: Joseph Warren (Giuseppe Vari). Sc: Thomas Lang.

Music: Mario Bertolazzi. Cast: Lou Castel, Beba

Loncar, Adolfo Celi, Massimo Serrato.

               

A local prosecuting attorney is killed and the murderous act is witnessed and even more importantly, photographed by Carlo and his girlfriend, Olga. They take the photos to Marco Cecarelli, alias Ivan Smirnov, alias Uncle "Fifi". Marco is confined to a wheelchair and makes his living filming nude models for magazines. He advises them to contact local Mafia Capo Don Salvatore (one of his minions was arrested as a suspect) to see if he would pay for the pix. When they are snubbed by the Godfather they decide to go to the local tabloid for a quick sale. From here on, everyone Carlo comes in contact with, including "Fifi" and Olga are killed by a mysterious assassin, out to get the negatives. In the finale, we learn who the killer was and why he was involved in a drug ring that the prosecuting attorney had uncovered.

The obvious failing of this film, besides Vari's utter lack of talent, is the uneven mixture of genres. Just when you think it's about to become a full-fledged thriller, the Mafia subplot intrudes, and vice versa. Giuseppe Vari has proven himself, with this and many other films of his I've seen, to be the Andy Warhol of the Italian film industry. He takes the simplest action, and drags it out ad infinitum. For example, do we really need to see a man, getting in his car, roll down his window, look around to see if there is any oncoming traffic, put the car into reverse and slowly back his car down the driveway. I think not. Vari at times seems obsessed with minutia. If he ever starts filming endless parades of walking feet, WATCH OUT DORIS WISHMAN!! Oh yeah, the score belongs in a Ron Ormond opus.

Movie #1

One of my favorite film magazines from the 60s was MOVIE. British based, it was edited by Ian Cameron and featured the writings of Paul Mayersberg, Peter Bogdanovich, Gavin Millar and many others. Below is a link to download the rare first issue. Enjoy!

http://www.mediafire.com/download/5t1xadja65w6369/MovieNo1_copy.pdf

ETC Soundtrack Round Up #3 by Rob Talbot

ETC Soundtrack Round-Up

The fabulous Death Waltz Recording Company kicked off 2016 in serious style with 'The Poliziotteschi Files 2xLP', being Franco Micalizzi's scores for Rome Armed to the Teeth and The Cynic, the Rat and the Fist presented for the first time on vinyl. Limited to 500 pieces, and only available from Mondo's website as far as I can see, these suckers probably won't be around for long. One imagines that the same will be true of their release of The Bloodstained Shadow OST that dropped in February. Composed by Stelvio Cipriani and performed by Goblin,  this great score is available in either 'Tri-Color' (red, blue & black) or 'Dual Stripe' (black with red and blue Stripes), although the latter is limited to 50 copies!

One Way Static also have some Stelvio goodness up their sleeves with a lavish release of Papaya, Love Goddess of the Cannibals coming out on March 25. These will come on clear with pink haze or pink/green split vinyl, along with a cassette version, limited to 200 and containing seven bonus tracks.

Four Flies Records have an equally enticing proposition for us with two vinyl compilations, Esterno Notte and Esterno Giorno, released back in January. These contain jazz, psych and lounge cuts from Gianfranco Reverberi, Nico Fidenco, Savina, Piccioni, Trovajoli and more, all plundered from the vaults of RCA Italy. Perfect for those of us who miss the days of the old Easy Tempo and Beat at Cinecitta releases.

Italy's Rustblade Records have a new Morricone comp, Paura, coming out on Record Store Day. As the title suggests, it showcases the Maestro's dark experimental material, with tracks from Cat O' Nine Tails, Il serpente (one of my favourites), Devil in the Brain and more. Just 499 of these are being issued, on transparent vinyl.

Goblin devotees are going to cause a line to form outside of their local indie record emporium on the morning of April 16 when Cinevox gives their fantastic La via della droga (Heroin Busters) score its vinyl debut; on white vinyl with some neat new artwork and an extra track not included on the previous CD version. April also sees Cinevox release Magnetic Systems, a mouth-watering collection of mid-70s rarities from the Bixio-Frizzi-Tempera team, and the same month brings a swanky new edition of Cipriani's Tentacoli / Tentacles from Dagored, a double LP on clear vinyl.

If all these expensive records are getting a bit much, never fear as there's plenty of new (and rarer) stuff out on CD, although to be fair, the damage doesn't end up being massively different when one considers import costs, etc! Stella Edizioni Musicali have released Detto Mariano's score for Enzo Castellari actioner Striker, while the ever reliable Beat Records offer new discs of Vince Tempera's The Paganini Horror and Bruno Zambrini's Fracchia contro Dracula (an obscure 1985 horror comedy by director Neri Parenti).

DigitMovies also continue to serve up the rarities with Carlo Rustichelli's Il terribile ispettore, Carlo Savina's Contronatura (The Unnaturals) and Angelo F. Lavagnino's Samoa regina della giungla, while Penta Music have Trovajoli's score for 1967 Giuliano Gemma western Days of Vengeance with a 12 page color booklet.

Quartet Records have unleashed Cipriani's Quel pomeriggio maledetto (AKA The Perfect Killer, a 1977 Eurocrimer starring Lee Van Cleef), Nora Orlandi's lovely The Sweet Body of Deborah, a split CD of Mario Nascimbene's Estate violenta and La prima notte di quiete, and Nicola Piovani's always wonderful The Perfume of the Lady in Black.

Okay, so now I have you all whipped up into a mindless consumerist frenzy, all that remains is to run away cackling like Diabolik as I bid you adieu for another couple of months; within which I'm sure there'll be plenty more exciting new releases to salivate over. Happy listening!

by Rob Talbot

Soundtrack blog : http://italiansoundtrackodyssey.blogspot.co.uk/

Movie blog:  http://robtalbotcultandworld.blogspot.co.uk/

Tenebrae

TENEBRAE

UNSANE

Italy 1982

Director: Dario Argento. Sc: Dario Argento, George Kemp.

Music: Simonetti, Pignatelli, Norante. Cast: Anthony Franciosa, Daria Nicolodi, John Saxon, Giuliano Gemma, Eva Robins/Roberto Coatti, Mirella D'Angelo, John Steiner, Ania Pieroni, Lara Wendel.

Peter Neal comes to Italy to promote his latest work, a violent thriller. He is criticized for the violence in his novels and in fact, right before he arrived in Rome, a woman was brutally murdered with pages from Neal's latest work, stuffed in her mouth. The killer contacts Neal and tells him how much he admires his work. As more killings occur, Neal and a police detective work together to try and uncover who the killer might be. When the assassin begins to knock off those closest to Neal, he decides to track down a fan whose obsessions with his books troubles him. Sure enough he has located the killer but when he's is murdered and the deaths continues, he and the police realize that there may be a second murderer.

This is my favorite Argento Giallo. It contains perfection in every element seen on the screen: photography, music, acting, special effects, you name it. When you consider that Lamberto Bava was the first assistant director and Michele Soavi was the second assistant, it's no wonder the film is a s good as it is. Franciosa is usually given to hamming it up, but here, he keeps it under control and gains audience sympathy in the process. Steiner had gained a world of experience playing psychos in crime films during the seventies, so his part here is not much of a stretch, still you can't wait for him to bite the bullet (or in this case, get an axe to the skull). With a strong narrative (for a change) you're able to concentrate on the characters more and you have to applaud Argento for concocting a storyline that admits, violent material could possibly influence people to commit violence. Of course in this case, the person was nuts to begin with, otherwise this would just be a piece of Christian coalition propaganda. The film was butchered for its US release (a typical reaction by distributors to Argento's early work) as UNSANE. Needless to say, avoid that version like the plague.

ETC Soundtrack Round Up #2 by Rob Talbot

It may have taken me far longer than I anticipated to darken Craig's inbox with this latest round-up (hey, last year was a tough one), but the various purveyors of Italo-score goodness have certainly been no slouches; the amazing proliferation of new releases continues unabated. And no sooner had I hit 'send' on the last column than I received a mailout announcing the emergence of some new kids on the block in the form of Rome-based Four Flies Records.

The outfit's two tasty inaugural releases in September were Gianni Ferrio's work for Steno opus La poliziotta and Franco Micalizzi's for Emmanuelle's 'spiritual sequel' Laure, both originally released by RCA in 1975. Although both have been long available on CD from DigitMovies, the return of these two gorgeous scores to vinyl is welcome indeed and it's great to see someone giving lesser known gems like these the treatment they deserve. November and December saw the outfit keeping up the good work with releases of Sandro Brugnolini's Fantabulous and Lallo Gori's never-before-released score for Franchi & Ingrassia / Lucio Fulci caper How we Robbed the Bank of Italy, making these guys definitely, as they say, ones to watch.

The UK's estimable Death Waltz Recording Company have also kept the flag flying with a string of characteristically great releases. Seemingly moments after I submitted the last column they dropped Nico Fidenco's electro soundtrack for that grungy old chestnut Zombi Holocaust on two different multicoloured double vinyl editions with some great new Corlen Kruger cover art – wherein it must be said that those zombies look a hell of a lot better than they did in the actual movie! October saw another 80s love-it-or-hate-it affair – The New Barbarians (AKA Warriors of the Wasteland) – get similar loving treatment, with Claudio Simonetti's abrasive score adorned with supercool new art from American heavy metal artist Wes Benscoter.

However, beating both of these hands down as an object of desire is Death Waltz's recent vinyl reissue of maestro Morricone's Black Belly of the Tarantula score as a gatefold double disc edition with a beautiful photo montage sleeve by Eric Adrian Lee. Obviously a must-have for any Morricone or Euro soundtrack devotee, the only possible downside being that it's even more on the pricey side than usual. And that's saying something.

As you may have heard, the Death Waltz imprint was bought by US company Mondo Tees at the back end of 2014, although thankfully DW head honcho Spencer Hickman remains at the helm. However, Mondo have been up to some pretty damn sexy business of their own with an eye-poppingly gorgeous double vinyl re-issue of  Morricone's The Big Gundown. You don't need me to tell you what a sublime score this is – here it's lavished with new art by comics legend Geoff Darrow.

Speaking of Morricone – and what the hell kind of Euroscore round-up would this be if we didn't? - Milan's AMS Records have been busy trying to fill some gaps in your vinyl collection with new editions of Metti, una Sera a Cena (AKA Love Circle), Investigation of a Citizen Above Suspicion and Duck, You Sucker! The resurgent Dagored also continue to come up with the goods, with handsome re-issues of The Humanoid, Violent City, Revolver and Fists in the Pocket. The double LP of the spellbinding Veruschka that they released in 2014 has also had another repress, becoming available again this month. The Florentine outfit has also recently put out Peppino DeLuca's ultra-cool score for La Ragazza con la pistola (Girl with a Gun), along with an edition of Bruno Nicolai's Eyeball that has to be eyeballed to be believed!

Returning to il maestro, Australia's Omni Recording Corporation have reissued his rare  experimental library music LP Controfase on vinyl, its first in any format (as far I can ascertain) since its original release on Gemelli records in1973. Old hands GDM have also released his score for 1966 German spy malarkey Agent 505: Death Trap Beirut (under its Italian moniker of La trappola scatta a Beirut) in October on CD and 10” vinyl editions. Meanwhile, their friends at Beat Records have put out CDs of Claudio Simonetti's Nightmare Beach and, much more interestingly, Armando Trovajoli's 1962 sci-fi stylings for I pianeti contro di noi (AKA The Man with the Yellow Eyes).

September saw the release of a trio of vinyl gothic horror slabs from Italy's Contempo

Records; namely Riz Ortolani's La danza macabra (Castle of Blood), Aldo Piga's Le strage dei vampiri (Slaughter of the Vampires) and Armando Trovajoli's Seddok l'erede di Satana. This marks the vinyl debut of all three, although La danza and Seddok have long been available on CD from DigitMovies. The same month also saw Milan's Schema label reissue Piero Umiliani's fabulous musical journey around the world of witchcraft that is Angeli Bianchi.... Angeli Neri (Witchcraft '70) on LP, bearing its original Omicron cover and label art from 1969. Just as well, too, as those old Easy Tempo CD and LP editions are pretty damn scarce these days. 

Meanwhile, DigitMovies continue to serve up even rarer gems on CD, as they have for the past 14 years. Recent additions to their vast catalogue include Bruno Canfora's Il vostro super agent Flit, Romolo Grano's Arcana, Gianni Ferrio's Milano... difendersi o morire (AKA Blazing Flowers) and Adios California, and Nico Fidenco's La Ragazinna (AKA Monika). With all the flashy vinyl releases on offer at present it can be easy to overlook the fine work these guys are doing - don't make that mistake, as the service they provide to the Euroscore aficionado is absolutely invaluable. Show them some love today and tell them ETC sent ya.  

Plenty to get your teeth into there, and who knows what 2016 will bring? To find out the answer to that, simply watch this space - I promise that the next round-up won't take as long to surface as this one did!

by Rob Talbot

Soundtrack blog : http://italiansoundtrackodyssey.blogspot.co.uk/

Movie blog:  http://robtalbotcultandworld.blogspot.co.uk/